The news about Chris Huhne & John Terry today has made me think. Both these men, in very different spheres of public life, are charged with quite serious offences. Both have either been pushed or voluntarily resigned.
If you take away the fact that they are very public personalities & apply what has happened, I wonder what our reaction would be if it happened to us mere mortals. I was a headteacher & therefore know about vindictive & groundless accusations against the teaching profession & the lasting harm that does to the people concerned. I don't know whether that applies in either of these high profile cases, maybe time will tell.
The basic principle that matters is that I thought we lived in a society which believes in the "due process" of law. Guilt has to be proved "beyond reasonable doubt". Increasingly we seem to live in a society which prosecutes & sentences through the press & TV. The really worrying thing about that is the speed with which the media reach a judgement. Often without the full facts, sometimes with very few facts at all, occasionally on the basis of lies.
I would want, more than anything, to be treated fairly if I were accused. I would want to be able to put my case & have my evidence heard. I would not want to be hounded & vilified. In fact I think the stress of that would be simply devastating. I certainly would not want to be punished before I had been found guilty.
That, it seems to me, is what we increasingly do now. Some elements of the media & the public are like a pack of wolves hounding individuals. Do we have the right to remove a persons ability to earn a living, especially when you consider how long it takes for a case to come to court? Do we have the right to punish their families too? I imagine that these two individuals aren't short of a bob or two, but the principle should still apply.
As a Magistrate I often thought there was a lot of Law, but sometimes Justice was surprisingly lacking. If we lose our sense of fair play & equal access to justice can we continue to call ourselves a civilised society? I don't know whether these men are guilty, that's for the court to decide. But until the court does decide, they should be given the benefit of the doubt. That principle should apply to everyone.
If you take away the fact that they are very public personalities & apply what has happened, I wonder what our reaction would be if it happened to us mere mortals. I was a headteacher & therefore know about vindictive & groundless accusations against the teaching profession & the lasting harm that does to the people concerned. I don't know whether that applies in either of these high profile cases, maybe time will tell.
The basic principle that matters is that I thought we lived in a society which believes in the "due process" of law. Guilt has to be proved "beyond reasonable doubt". Increasingly we seem to live in a society which prosecutes & sentences through the press & TV. The really worrying thing about that is the speed with which the media reach a judgement. Often without the full facts, sometimes with very few facts at all, occasionally on the basis of lies.
I would want, more than anything, to be treated fairly if I were accused. I would want to be able to put my case & have my evidence heard. I would not want to be hounded & vilified. In fact I think the stress of that would be simply devastating. I certainly would not want to be punished before I had been found guilty.
That, it seems to me, is what we increasingly do now. Some elements of the media & the public are like a pack of wolves hounding individuals. Do we have the right to remove a persons ability to earn a living, especially when you consider how long it takes for a case to come to court? Do we have the right to punish their families too? I imagine that these two individuals aren't short of a bob or two, but the principle should still apply.
As a Magistrate I often thought there was a lot of Law, but sometimes Justice was surprisingly lacking. If we lose our sense of fair play & equal access to justice can we continue to call ourselves a civilised society? I don't know whether these men are guilty, that's for the court to decide. But until the court does decide, they should be given the benefit of the doubt. That principle should apply to everyone.
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